A Young World Rises From The Ashes
The world of Post-Ragnarok is a strange mix of fantasy and modern reality. Though there are beastfolk, dragons, vampires, and elementals, modern-world items such as arcade cabinets and cyborgs exist!
Taking place in a world that used to resemble our own before being ravaged by wars between the gods, the players take on the role of teenagers of different fantasy races. Together, they use their newly awakened magic powers to stop gang fights, slay dragons atop mountains, discover long-lost weapons of war... or chase down a super rare trading card.
The more fantastic aspects of this setting are designed to give the setting a childlike feeling, while the post-apocalyptic aspects are meant to represent the aftermath of conflicts between adults that their children now have to deal with. In our world, many young people have to face issues brought on by the decisions made by previous generations, and it's easy to feel as if the world is falling apart. My thought is that this type of setting offers fun escapism while still giving the players things to think about.
To further add to the childlike feeling of the game, I created a number of items that I imagined the young people of this setting would engage with in their spare time. Some examples of these include:
-
A card game called "Sci-Fi : The Conference"
-
A video game called "Park Souls" where a zombie must find a parking spot for his car in a horribly aggressive fantasy land.
-
A fighting game called "Ultra Sassy Sisters".
There are also many strange locales that the players may visit. Examples include:
-
A moving trading town on giant mechanical legs.
-
A giant box fort built by delinquents.
-
A mysterious dimension that mirrors the normal world.
-
a teriyaki place.
Expressive Customization
Post-Ragnarok features a character customization system that is simple to get started with but has a lot of room for expression. Players choose their class, race, and a backstory template if they wish, but are also allowed to allocate points to their hobbies. Your character can be good at sports, drawing, cooking, model kit building, games, and more.
Instead of having many weapons with individual stats, weapons are broken down into types. The player can use any object as a weapon so long as it fits into a type. This allows the characters to wield mailboxes, water guns, stop signs, teddy bears, or brooms as their weapons of choice.
Players can also select a "Frenzy" mode for their character, in which the character can once per day tap into their latent powers and get a boost to their actions.
There are 5 different classes, each with their own set of skills. Besides allocating points to unlock skills in their own classes, there is also a "Branch Skill" system that allows the player to borrow a limited amount of skills from another class. I designed these based on survey results from players who play different archetypes in other TRPGs, and designed personas based on these results.
There is also a joke class called "Weird". This class has unique skills such as pulling random items from their pockets, hallucinating, or self-destructing.
Extra Comments
When I took the TRPG class at DigiPen, Post-Ragnarok felt like the kind of thing I always wanted to make. I took a lot of inspiration from Adventure Time and Eastward. But, as this was a project I very much loved, I also wanted to pour a lot of the other things I liked into it as well. I referenced a lot of other games and shows in the work, and the setting allowed me to incorporate a wide range of inspirations.. I believe this fusion of interest is what helps this game stand out.